Sasse hopes first political race is a successful one (AUDIO)

Midland University President Ben Sasse hopes to make his first political campaign a successful one as he seeks the Republican nomination for US Senate.

Sasse says was committed to running what he calls a policy-serious campaign through town hall meetings scheduled throughout the state. In those meetings, Sasse says he’s heard a familiar refrain on the campaign trail.

“I’d says Obamacare, Obamacare, and Obamacare are the top three things that folks talk about on the grassroots (level) in Nebraska, but they mean three really different things,” Sasse tells Nebraska Radio Network in an interview.

One, of course, is opposition to the federal health insurance law. Sasse has based his campaign on opposition to the law, drawing on his experience serving as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services in the administration of President George W. Bush. He says the law must be repealed and replaced.

Sasse says the other two issues implied in opposition to Obamacare stem from how the Affordable Care Act is being implemented.

Sasse claims voters see a constitutional crisis emerging from its implementation with President Barack Obama exceeding his authority in re-writing the law and delaying certain deadlines a number of times.

The last is related to the second: executive branch overreach.

Sasse says the ACA represents all the burdensome and unrealistic federal regulations coming from Washington, D.C. which he contends is holding down economic growth.

The Republican primary for U.S. Senate has grown nasty in the last weeks. Outside special interest, third party groups are spending freely, mostly on behalf or against Sasse and Shane Osborn, the former state Treasurer.

Sasse dismisses allegations by Osborn that he’s behind the negative campaign against Osborn.

“I have never run a single attack ad, period.” Sasse says. “We have never spent one dime on any of these attacks and we have absolutely no coordination with outside groups.”

Pinnacle Bancorp President Sid Dinsdale and Omaha attorney Bart McLeay also are in the GOP U.S. Senate race.